32 chain-snatch­ing cases solved af­ter thief ’s ar­rest

Snatch­ing a man­gal­su­tra of a 50-year-old woman in Vashi has proved dear for a se­rial chain snatcher. Fol­low­ing a com­plaint by the woman, Vashi po­lice has suc­ceeded in not just ar­rest­ing him, but also solv­ing 32 chain-snatch­ing cases. It has also re­cov­ered gold jew­ellery weigh­ing half a kg.

Ruk­mini Bhanushali, 50, a res­i­dent of Sec­tor 28 in Vashi, had com­plained to the po­lice that on Novem­ber 12, around 2.30pm, an uniden­ti­fied per­son on a red mo­tor­cy­cle had snatched her 40g gold man­gal­su­tra and fled.

Speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence on Fri­day, deputy com­mis­sioner of po­lice (zone I), Shahji Umap said that on De­cem­ber 13, the crime branch team of Vashi po­lice sta­tion dur­ing their pa­trolling no­ticed a man who fit Bhanushali’s de­scrip­tion of the thief. They man­aged to catch the man al­though he tried to evade ar­rest.

“Fol­low­ing in­ter­ro­ga­tion, he said that his name is Naushad Qureshi, 43, a res­i­dent of Mum­bra. He then con­fessed to com­mit­ting var­i­ous crimes of chain snatch­ing in the city, fol­low­ing which he was ar­rested,” added Umap.

The po­lice said that Qureshi has con­fessed that he along with his ac­com­plices has snatched chains in Vashi, Kopar Khairane, Ra­bale and San­pada.